If you're looking for some online stations of the cross to pray during the Fridays of Lent, I've posted several versions here.

Labels: Lent, multimedia, podcasts, prayer, stations of the cross

I received an e-mail this week from the G.K. Chesterton Theatre Company in LA.

The company produced Malcolm and Teresa back in 2008, and now has a new production highlighting the life of Franz Jagerstatter.

I'm passing the notice along for those in Los Angeles...

“An Act of Reparation”
By Irish playwright, Cathal Gallagher
Directed by Maria Vargo

Coming Soon to
The Odyssey Theatre

This is a riveting true story of one man’s courage and faith during World War II under the German Reich in his struggle and determination to follow his conscience. Franz Jagerstatter, a native of Austria, takes a stand that will ultimately change his life, and the lives of those he loves, forever.

The Odyssey Theatre
2055 So. Sepulveda Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90025

February 18th through March 7, 2010
Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays at 8:00 pm
Sunday Matinees at 2:00 pm

$20.00 per ticket, and $15 for Seniors/Students or groups of (10) ten or more.

For Ticket Purchase and Directions
Contact: www.odysseytheatre.com
or Call (310) 477-2055
GKC Theatre Company (310) 462-5141

Featuring: Jade Carter, Amber Bonasso, Deborah O’Brien, Bette Smith, Toni Trenton, Jacques Freydont, William Knight, John Graham, Steve Fogelman, Stephen Knight, Catalina Tautu, Alexander Schottky, Jason Kaine, John Mullen and Lane Wray

G.K. Chesterton Theatre Company brings to families, plays that explore issues of conscience, faith and heroism with special emphasis on the men and women who stood against the current tide of their time. Great plays can shape character in positive ways, and we feel a special obligation to produce inspiring works, based on true stories.

Labels: events, hollywood, moral life

I recently saw Avatar, which was -- from a visual point-of-view -- stunning in 3D. Part of the visual genius of the film is the ability to create a world that is incredible / fantastic but which becomes credible to the viewer... the visual effects did not distract or call attention to themselves.

From the perspective of story, however, and especially from the perspective of spirituality, I found Avatar much less impressive. The highly caricatured portrayals of good (Navi) and evil (human) provided a simplistic moral universe very unlike the elaborate and complex visual universe of the movie.

Sure, there were a few human characters who showed an interest in the Navi's world/culture, but in response the solution was to attack the humans, and, in the case of the main character (hero?) Jake, to abandon his human life. He was not some sort of Christ-like mediator figure, but instead one who "switched sides."

Fr. Robert Barron makes some acute observations about the movie's "Hollywood-approved spirituality" and how it differs from a Biblical spirituality. See the YouTube video below:

Labels: hollywood, movies, multimedia

Before the octave of Christmas draws to a close, here is a short excerpt from Pope Benedict's Urbi et Orbi address on Christmas Day:

The light of that first Christmas was like a fire kindled in the night. All about there was darkness, while in the cave there shone the true light “that enlightens every man” (Jn 1:9). And yet all this took place in simplicity and hiddenness, in the way that God works in all of salvation history. God loves to light little lights, so as then to illuminate vast spaces. Truth, and Love, which are its content, are kindled wherever the light is welcomed; they then radiate in concentric circles, as if by contact, in the hearts and minds of all those who, by opening themselves freely to its splendour, themselves become sources of light. Such is the history of the Church: she began her journey in the lowly cave of Bethlehem, and down the centuries she has become a People and a source of light for humanity. Today too, in those who encounter that Child, God still kindles fires in the night of the world, calling men and women everywhere to acknowledge in Jesus the “sign” of his saving and liberating presence and to extend the “us” of those who believe in Christ to the whole of mankind.

Thanks be to God for all the fires He lit in 2009, and all that He will light in the coming year.

Labels: pope benedict xvi

I've re-posted my Advent calendar for 2009... and the first door will open on Tuesday, December 1.



If you'd like to add this Advent calendar to your website, you can copy and paste the code below:

<a href="http://www.doxaweb.com/advent/calendar.asp"><img src="http://www.doxaweb.com/advent/calendar_thumb.jpg" border="0" height="100" width="120"></a>

You can change the height and width as needed to make it fit on your site.


NOTE: Since Advent actually starts today, I've posted a short animation for the First Sunday of Advent here.

Labels: advent, multimedia

Greg Smisek, who publishes an e-newsletter for young adults on Catholic events and news in the Twin Cities, included a short article this week about the new translation of the Roman Missal. I'm reprinting it today, in honor of Thanksgiving Day.

Have a blessed Thanksgiving!

Last week at their fall meeting, the U.S. Bishops approved the last of the texts of the long-awaited English translation of the Roman Missal. But it will be another year or so before the texts can be used at Mass. In the meantime, you can get a taste of what we can look forward to at the Bishops’ website, www.usccb.org/romanmissal.

Apropos the national holiday, I thought I’d provide the following future text (not authorized for use yet):

Priest: The Lord be with you.
People: And with your spirit.
Priest: Lift up your hearts.
People: We lift them up to the Lord.
Priest: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
People: It is right and just.

It is truly right to give you thanks,
truly just to give you glory, Father most holy,
for you are the one God living and true,
existing before all ages and abiding for all eternity,
dwelling in unapproachable light;
yet you, who alone are good, the source of life,
have made all that is,
so that you might fill your creatures with blessings
and bring joy to many of them by the glory of your light....

— Preface of the Fourth Eucharistic Prayer (study text)

More on the new translation

Labels: church, liturgy

Some eighth graders whom I helped prepare for Confirmation last spring received the sacrament this past week at the Cathedral of Saint Paul.

On the last night of class last spring, I administered a quiz to see what they had learned. You can test your own knowledge of the faith by sampling a few of the questions...

We were born in spiritual exile because of what?
a) Swine flu
b) The existence of computers running Microsoft Windows
c) Our personal sins
d) Original sin

When God wants to form a relationship with His people, what does He create?
a) a MySpace page
b) a covenant
c) a creed

What do you call teaching that cannot be in error?
a) The New York Times
b) Sacramental
c) Infallible

What are the four marks (distinguishing characteristics) of the church?
a) Big, Worldwide, Loving, With-It
b) Matthew, Mark, Luke, John
c) One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic
d) The Wounds of Christ

Where do people go when they die if they are not ready to see God face-to-face but have not turned away from Him in a definitive way?
a) A Rick Astley music video
b) Purgatory
c) Limbo
d) Crying Room

I'm happy to report that all of the confirmandi passed this assessment. Now, on to the practicum.

Labels: church, education, sacraments

before tomorrow's vote. Details here.

Labels: human life, politics

I received an e-mail yesterday from Brian Burch of CatholicVote.org. A snip:

The Catholic Bishops sprung into action late last week, announcing their strong opposition to the current health care legislation because the bills include taxpayer support for abortion and fail to provide a conscience clause for doctors.

The Bishops have asked all Catholics to petition Congress to remove any support for abortion from the health care bill.

So Planned Parenthood is attacking the Catholic Bishops and calling their actions “dangerous.”

Here’s what Planned Parenthood’s President Cecile Richards said in a message this week to her supporters: “If you’re Catholic and you disagree with the bishops, please let your legislators know when you send your message. Your voice as a pro-choice Catholic needs to be heard NOW.”

Complete letter from Brian Burch is available here (hat tip to Mississippi Catholic), including action steps for those Catholics who share the concerns of their bishops. It is sad that one has to modify the noun "Catholics" with such a clause, but such is the world we live in.

Labels: church, human life, politics

Matthew Warner over at Fallible Blogma launched an innovative project this month designed to "raise awareness about the many Catholic speakers out there and to support them." He started by polling people about their favorite Catholic speakers, and after compiling a list of 100, he's been asking Catholic bloggers to write short profiles about them. (There's still an opportunity for bloggers to participate; click here for details).

Looking for a Catholic speaker versed in leadership, men's spirituality, or defining/redefining success? Then Bill Moyer would be a fine choice.

Moyer is presently the Executive Director for the National Fellowship of Catholic Men (NCFM). He has worked for more than twenty years in leadership management and development in the corporate world. A convert to the Catholic faith back in 1988, he has also served for many years as a youth minister and catechist.

In addition, he has recently authored a book along with his son Billy, entitled Seeds of Success: A Journey from Success to Significance.

Over at the NCFM website, you can learn more about Bill Moyer, and also book him as a speaker.

Labels: church, leadership, speaker

Six years ago this week, I moved to Los Angeles. I chose the feast of St Thérèse as my move date.

Last year, as I prepared to move back to Minnesota, I reflected on her witness in relation to my five years in southern California. You can read it here.

Labels: hollywood, prayer, saints

Five years ago today, my dad passed from this life to the next. It was a remarkable day for my family... all ten kids gathered around his bedside at home to read him poetry, sing, pray, and tell stories.

My dad was a man of hope and expectation. As I told some friends once, after witnessing his death, I began to ask myself: how do I need to live in order to be able to die like him?

This morning, I pulled out some memorabilia from the funeral. Alongside his funeral notice and obituary, I found the text of the remembrances that my brothers and sisters shared at the funeral. They are a fitting tribute to one of the heroes of my life.

Thanks, Pops, for everything.

Labels: fatherhood, human life

Whether you are looking for work, or weary of your work, or simply looking for a way to bring your prayer and your work together, you might find this novena to St. Josemaría Escrivá helpful.

For instance, on day 7 of the novena, you have the chance to meditate on maturing in virtue through work. The prayers include this quote from Escrivá:

A complete range of virtues is called into play when we set about our work with the purpose of sanctifying it: fortitude, to persevere in our work despite the difficulties that naturally arise and to ensure that we never let ourselves be overwhelmed by anxiety; temperance, in order to spend ourselves unsparingly and to overcome our love of comfort and our selfishness; justice, so as to fulfill our duties towards God, society, our family and our fellow workers; prudence, to know in each case what course to take, and then to set about it without hesitation...And all this, I emphasize, is for the sake of Love. (Friends of God, 72)

Labels: conversion, moral life, prayer

Lori Pieper is your resource for clearing up various rumors about John Paul I.

She wrote an e-mail to me earlier this month:

Recently, I've had a great many more people questioning me about [the] ridiculous [Lucien] Gregoire book on Pope John Paul I, and wondering whether it's true.... Just recently, his book made its way onto the Wikipedia entry on the Moral theology of John Paul I and was treated as fact. (I took care of that by re-editing the entry myself, and it's still there).

I've made a new entry on my blog about Gregoire, and if I have time will put up more. I hope to have as many people as possible link to it, so it can climb in the Yahoo/Google listings (I understand that this is the theory anyway). I want to have people find my work before they start believing this book. This is part of my work on John Paul I for the 31st anniversary of his election.

Read more here.

Labels: church, communication

In the August 31 edition of America magazine, Bishop D'Arcy, the bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend, asks some questions of the University of Notre Dame and other Catholic universities as well. Some highlights:

It is not about President Obama.... It is not about Democrats versus Republicans.... It is not about whether it is appropriate for the president of the United States to speak at Notre Dame or any great Catholic university on the pressing issues of the day.... The response, so intense and widespread, is not about what this journal called “sectarian Catholicism.” Rather, the response of the faithful derives directly from the Gospel....

Another serious question of witness and moral responsibility before the Notre Dame administration concerns its sponsorship over several years of a sad and immoral play, offensive to the dignity of women, which many call pornographic, and which an increasing number of Catholic universities have cancelled, “The Vagina Monologues,” by Eve Ensler.

Although he spoke eloquently about the importance of dialogue with the president of the United States, the president of Notre Dame chose not to dialogue with his bishop on these two matters [ND commencement and The Vagina Monologues], both pastoral and both with serious ramifications for the care of souls, which is the core responsibility of the local bishop....

I firmly believe that the board of trustees must take up its responsibility afresh, with appropriate study and prayer. They also must understand the seriousness of the present moment. This requires spiritual and intellectual formation on the part of the men and women of industry, business and technology who make up the majority of the board. Financial generosity is no longer sufficient for membership on the boards of great universities, if indeed it ever was. The responsibility of university boards is great, and decisions must not be made by a few. Like bishops, they are asked to leave politics and ambition at the door, and make serious decisions before God....

Where will the great Catholic universities search for a guiding light in the years ahead? Will it be the Land O’Lakes Statement or Ex Corde Ecclesiae? The first comes from a frantic time, with finances as the driving force. Its understanding of freedom is defensive, absolutist and narrow. It never mentions Christ and barely mentions the truth. The second text, Ex Corde Ecclesiae, speaks constantly of truth and the pursuit of truth. It speaks of freedom in the broader, Catholic philosophical and theological tradition, as linked to the common good, to the rights of others and always subject to truth. Unlike Land O’Lakes, it is communal, reflective of the developments since Vatican II, and it speaks with a language enlightened by the Holy Spirit.

The whole article from this wise shepherd is worth a read and some reflection.

Labels: bishop, church, communication, communion, dialogue, human life, moral life, politics, pope benedict xvi, USA

Here's a trailer for an upcoming documentary on abortion. Looks horrifying.

"[We would] break down their natural modesty, separate them from their parents and values and become the sex experts in their lives so they would turn to us. When we could give them a low dose birth control pill they would get pregnant on it or on a defective condom..."

According to LifeSite News, the film does not have distribution yet, and is still in post-production. The website for the project is bloodmoneyfilm.com.

Labels: human life, moral life, suffering

What follows are four points about health care reform from Bishop R. Walker Nickless, the bishop of Sioux City, Iowa. Since it's not possible to link directly to the relevant part of his letter, I'm reprinting it here (emphases mine):

The current national debate about health care reform should concern all of us. There is much at stake in this political struggle, and also much confusion and inaccurate information being thrown around. My brother bishops have described some clear “goal-posts” to mark out what is acceptable reform, and what must be rejected. First and most important, the Church will not accept any legislation that mandates coverage, public or private, for abortion, euthanasia, or embryonic stem-cell research. We refuse to be made complicit in these evils, which frankly contradict what “health care” should mean. We refuse to allow our own parish, school, and diocesan health insurance plans to be forced to include these evils. As a corollary of this, we insist equally on adequate protection of individual rights of conscience for patients and health care providers not to be made complicit in these evils. A so-called reform that imposes these evils on us would be far worse than keeping the health care system we now have.

Second, the Catholic Church does not teach that “health care” as such, without distinction, is a natural right. The “natural right” of health care is the divine bounty of food, water, and air without which all of us quickly die. This bounty comes from God directly. None of us own it, and none of us can morally withhold it from others. The remainder of health care is a political, not a natural, right, because it comes from our human efforts, creativity, and compassion. As a political right, health care should be apportioned according to need, not ability to pay or to benefit from the care. We reject the rationing of care. Those who are sickest should get the most care, regardless of age, status, or wealth. But how to do this is not self-evident. The decisions that we must collectively make about how to administer health care therefore fall under “prudential judgment.”

Third, in that category of prudential judgment, the Catholic Church does not teach that government should directly provide health care. Unlike a prudential concern like national defense, for which government monopolization is objectively good – it both limits violence overall and prevents the obvious abuses to which private armies are susceptible – health care should not be subject to federal monopolization. Preserving patient choice (through a flourishing private sector) is the only way to prevent a health care monopoly from denying care arbitrarily, as we learned from HMOs in the recent past. While a government monopoly would not be motivated by profit, it would be motivated by such bureaucratic standards as quotas and defined “best procedures,” which are equally beyond the influence of most citizens. The proper role of the government is to regulate the private sector, in order to foster healthy competition and to curtail abuses. Therefore any legislation that undermines the viability of the private sector is suspect. Private, religious hospitals and nursing homes, in particular, should be protected, because these are the ones most vigorously offering actual health care to the poorest of the poor.

The best way in practice to approach this balance of public and private roles is to spread the risks and costs of health care over the largest number of people. This is the principle underlying Medicaid and Medicare taxes, for example. But this principle assumes that the pool of taxable workers is sufficiently large, compared to those who draw the benefits, to be reasonably inexpensive and just. This assumption is at root a pro-life assumption! Indeed, we were a culture of life when such programs began. Only if we again foster a culture of life can we perpetuate the economic justice of taxing workers to pay health care for the poor. Without a growing population of youth, our growing population of retirees is outstripping our distribution systems. In a culture of death such as we have now, taxation to redistribute costs of medical care becomes both unjust and unsustainable.

Fourth, preventative care is a moral obligation of the individual to God and to his or her family and loved ones, not a right to be demanded from society. The gift of life comes only from God; to spurn that gift by seriously mistreating our own health is morally wrong. The most effective preventative care for most people is essentially free – good diet, moderate exercise, and sufficient sleep. But pre-natal and neo-natal care are examples of preventative care requiring medical expertise, and therefore cost; and this sort of care should be made available to all as far as possible.

Within these limits, the Church has been advocating for decades that health care be made more accessible to all, especially to the poor. Will the current health care reform proposals achieve these goals?

The current House reform bill, HR 3200, does not meet the first or the fourth standard. As Cardinal Justin Rigali has written for the USCCB Secretariat of Pro-life Activities, this bill circumvents the Hyde amendment (which prohibits federal funds from being used to pay for abortions) by drawing funding from new sources not covered by the Hyde amendment, and by creatively manipulating how federal funds covered by the Hyde amendment are accounted. It also provides a “public insurance option” without adequate limits, so that smaller employers especially will have a financial incentive to push all their employees into this public insurance. This will effectively prevent those employees from choosing any private insurance plans. This will saddle the working classes with additional taxes for inefficient and immoral entitlements. The Senate bill, HELP, is better than the House bill, as I understand it. It subsidizes care for the poor, rather than tending to monopolize care. But, it designates the limit of four times federal poverty level for the public insurance option, which still includes more than half of all workers. This would impinge on the vitality of the private sector. It also does not meet the first standard of explicitly excluding mandatory abortion coverage.

I encourage all of you to make you voice heard to our representatives in Congress. Tell them what they need to hear from us: no health care reform is better than the wrong sort of health care reform. Insist that they not permit themselves to be railroaded into the current too-costly and pro-abortion health care proposals. Insist on their support for proposals that respect the life and dignity of every human person, especially the unborn. And above all, pray for them, and for our country. (Please see the website for the Iowa Catholic Conference at www.iowacatholicconference.org and www.usccb.org/healthcare for more information)

Labels: bioethics, human life, moral life, politics

Last December, Family Theater Productions in Hollywood sponsored a Theology of the Body script contest.

The winning script? A characteristically brilliant piece of writing by Sean Dillon, fellow Act One 2002 alumnus:

Labels: hollywood, John Paul II, marriage and family, moral life, movies, respect, theology of the body

On the memorial of St. John Mary Vianney, patron saint of priests, I've decided to pull a few passages from a letter to priests that was published by Pope John Paul II on Holy Thursday of 1986. In this letter, the Pope reflected on the Curé D' Ars and the value of his example for priests today.

The depth of his love for Christ and for souls

The Cure of Ars is a model of priestly zeal for all pastors. The secret of his generosity is to be found without doubt in his love for God, lived without limits, in constant response to the love made manifest in Christ crucified. This is where he bases his desire to do everything to save the souls ransomed by Christ at such a great price, and to bring them back to the love of God. Let us recall one of those pithy sayings which he had the knack of uttering: "The priesthood is the love of the Heart of Jesus." In his sermons and catechesis he continually returned to that love: "O my God, I prefer to die loving you than to live a single instant without loving you... I love you, my divine Savior, because you were crucified for us... because you have me crucified for you." For the sake of Christ, he seeks to conform himself exactly to the radical demands that Jesus in the Gospels puts before the disciples whom he sends out: prayer, poverty, humility, self-denial, voluntary penance. And, like Christ, he has a love for his flock that leads him to extreme pastoral commitment and self-sacrifice. Rarely has a pastor been so acutely aware of his responsibilities, so consumed by a desire to wrest his people from the sins of their lukewarmness. "O my God, grant me the conversion of my parish: I consent to suffer whatever you wish, for as long as I live." Dear brother priests, nourished by the Second Vatican Council which has felicitously placed the priest's consecration within the framework of his pastoral mission, let us join Saint John Mary Vianney and seek the dynamism of our pastoral zeal in the Heart of Jesus, in his love for souls. If we do not draw from the same source, our ministry risks bearing little fruit!

The specific ministry of the priest

Saint John Mary Vianney gives an eloquent answer to certain questionings of the priest's identity, which have manifested themselves in the course of the last twenty years; in fact it seems that today a more balanced position is being reached. The priest always, and in an unchangeable way, finds the source of his identity in Christ the Priest. It is not the world which determines his status, as though it depended on changing needs or ideas about social roles. The priest is marked with the seal of the Priesthood of Christ, in order to share in his function as the one Mediator and Redeemer. So, because of this fundamental bond, there opens before the priest the immense field of the service of souls, for their salvation in Christ and in the Church. This service must be completely inspired by love of souls in imitation of Christ who gives his life for them. It is God's wish that all people should be saved, and that none of the little ones should be lost (cf. Mt 18:14). "The priest must always be ready to respond to the needs of souls," said the Cure of Ars. "He is not for himself, he is for you." The priest is for the laity: he animates them and supports them in the exercise of the common priesthood of the baptized—so well illustrated by the Second Vatican Council—which consists in their making their lives a spiritual offering, in witnessing to the Christian spirit in the family, in taking charge of the temporal sphere and sharing in the evangelization of their brethren. But the service of the priest belongs to another order. He is ordained to act in the name of Christ the Head, to bring people into the new life made accessible by Christ, to dispense to them the mysteries—the Word, forgiveness, the Bread of Life—to gather them into his body, to help them to form themselves from within, to live and to act according to the saving plan of God. In a word, our identity as priests is manifested in the "creative" exercise of the love for souls communicated by Christ Jesus. Attempts to make the priest more like the laity are damaging to the Church. This does not mean in any way that the priest can remain remote from the human concerns of the laity: he must be very near to them, as John Mary Vianney was, but as a priest, always in a perspective which is that of their salvation and of the progress of the Kingdom of God. He is the witness and the dispenser of a life other than earthly life (cf. Presbyterorum Ordinis, 3). It is essential to the Church that the identity of the priest be safeguarded, with its vertical dimension. The life and personality of the Cure of Ars are a particularly enlightening and vigorous illustration of this.

His intimate configuration to Christ and his solidarity with sinners

Saint John Mary Vianney did not content himself with the ritual carrying out of the activities of his ministry. It was his heart and his life which he sought to conform to Christ. Prayer was the soul of his life: silent and contemplative prayer, generally in his church at the foot of the tabernacle. Through Christ, his soul opened to the three divine Persons, to whom he would entrust "his poor soul" in his last will and testament. "He kept a constant union with God in the middle of an extremely busy life." And he did not neglect the office or the rosary. He turned spontaneously to the Virgin. His poverty was extraordinary. He literally stripped himself of everything for the poor. And he shunned honors. Chastity shone in his face. He knew the value of purity in order "to rediscover the source of love which is God." Obedience to Christ consisted, for John Mary Vianney, in obedience to the Church and especially to the Bishop. This obedience took the form of accepting the heavy charge of being a parish priest, which often frightened him. But the Gospel insists especially on renouncing self, on accepting the Cross. Many were the crosses which presented themselves to the Cure of Ars in the course of his ministry: calumny on the part of the people, being misunderstood by an assistant priest or other confreres, contradictions, and also a mysterious struggle against the powers of hell, and sometimes even the temptation to despair in the midst of spiritual darkness. Nonetheless he did not content himself with just accepting these trials without complaining; he went beyond them by mortification, imposing on himself continual fasts and many other rugged practices in order to "reduce his body to servitude," as Saint Paul says. But what we must see clearly in this penance, which our age unhappily has little taste for, are his motives: love of God and the conversion of sinners. Thus he asks a discouraged fellow priest: "You have prayed..., you have wept..., but have you fasted, have you kept vigil...?" Here we are close to the warning Jesus gave to the Apostles: "But this kind is cast out only by prayer and fasting" (Mt 17:21). In a word, John Mary Vianney sanctified himself so as to be more able to sanctify others. Of course, conversion remains the secret of hearts, which are free in their actions, and the secret of God's grace. By his ministry, the priest can only enlighten people, guide them in the internal forum and give them the sacraments. The sacraments are of course actions of Christ, and their effectiveness is not diminished by the imperfection or unworthiness of the minister. But the results depend also on the dispositions of those who receive them, and these are greatly assisted by the personal holiness of the priest, by his perceptible witness, as also by the mysterious exchange of merits in the Communion of Saints. Saint Paul said: "In my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the Church" (Col 1:24). John Mary Vianney in a sense wished to force God to grant these graces of conversion, not only by his prayer but by the sacrifice of his whole life. He wished to love God for those who did not love him, and even to do the penance which they would not do. He was truly a pastor completely at one with his sinful people. Dear brother priests, let us not be afraid of this very personal commitment—marked by asceticism and inspired by love—which God asks of us for the proper exercise of our Priesthood. Let us remember the recent reflections of the Synodal Fathers: "It seems to us that in the difficulties of today God wishes to teach us more deeply the value, importance and central place of the Cross of Jesus Christ." In the priest, Christ relives his Passion, for the sake of souls. Let us give thanks to God who thus permits us to share in the Redemption, in our hearts and in our flesh! For all these reasons, Saint John Mary Vianney never ceases to be a witness, ever living, ever relevant, to the truth about the priestly vocation and service. We recall the convincing way in which he spoke of the greatness of the priest and of the absolute need for him. Those who are already priests, those who are preparing for the Priesthood and those who will be called to it must fix their eyes on his example and follow it. The faithful too will more clearly grasp, thanks to him, the mystery of the Priesthood of their priests. No, the figure of the Cure of Ars does not fade.

(from the Letter of Pope John Paul II To All the Priests of the Church for Holy Thursday 1986)

See also:

Letter of Pope Benedict XVI Proclaiming a Year for Priests - June 16, 2009

Encyclical Letter of Pope John XXIII on Saint John Vianney - August 1, 1959

Labels: conversion, John Paul II, mercy, moral life, paschal mystery, pope benedict xvi, priesthood, saints, vocations, Year for Priests

Man thinks of God as a stern and lofty challenge, as the relentless Holy One. But he is nearer to us than ever a lover was to his dearest one; he bears in his heart our deepest concerns and bestows on us his ever watchful care. He is devoted to us with the ceaselessly creative trust in the beloved: "You are! You can! And I will give you everything so that you may become what I have implanted in you."

Man thinks of God as remote and unreal, and this is the worst of all his misconceptions. Power and awfulness are great things. But it is terrifying to think of God as a pure abstraction, dissolving into nothingness. It is terrifying if all the things around us, houses and trees and people and events, become so real that they oppress us and yet he becomes a mere theory, a concept, an insubstantial sound, or a vague atmosphere. Nevertheless, God is real! How near the heart can feel him! How surely it can experience his awakening and consoling reality! God is the Comforter.

What is the meaning of comfort? How does it come about?

Certainly not by reasoning and reckoning. Advice and argument are no comfort: they leave us cold. They leave man alone in his need and suffering. Nothing comes to him from them. But comfort is full of life; it has an immediacy and an intimacy that makes all things new.

To comfort, you must love. You must be open and enter into the other's heart. You must be observant; you must have the free and sensitive heart that finds the paths of life with quiet assurance; you must be able to discover the sore and withered places. You must have the subtlety and strength to penetrate to the living center, to the deep source of life that has dried up. The heart must combine with this source of life, must summon it to life again so that it can flow through all the deserts and ruins within.

Monsignor Romano Guardini

Labels: charity, friendship

During the past week, many people have been watching a YouTube video of a wedding entrance. It doesn't take place at a Catholic wedding, but it clearly seems to be in a Christian context.



There's something infectious about the moment. It's a fun celebration of the joy of the moment, communicating a carefree sense of celebration... a unique, creative and serendipitous ode to human love.

However, it seems to me that such an outpouring of self-expression is more suited to a reception than the start of a worship service. In the words of Cardinal Ratzinger,

"Real liturgy implies that God responds and reveals how we can worship him. In any form, liturgy includes some kind of 'institution.' It cannot spring from imagination, our own creativity -- then it would remain just a cry in the dark or mere self-affirmation. Liturgy implies a real relationship with Another, who reveals himself to us and gives our existence a new direction." (The Spirit of the Liturgy, "Liturgy and Life")

I think the young playwright Karol Wojtyla had a similar insight, more particularly as it relates to marriage, in a passage from The Jeweler's Shop. A couple struggling through their married life after starting on a wobbly foundation observe their situation as follows:

CHRISTOPHER
When we took the rings I felt your hand trembling ....
We forgot to pay attention to the face of that old man,
whom Mother told me about: his eyes are said to be very expressive.
It is not our fault that we read nothing
in his eyes; and he said little -- things we knew anyway.
So do not be surprised, Mother, than his words left no trace
(things we knew anyway -- we did not sense greatness),
and Monica's trembling hands told me much more.
I was engrossed in her being moved, and in my own
experience of her being moved, which I shared fully
-- and I saw us two deep down in our own experience:
I think I love her very much.

MONICA
We were taken up with each other -- how could we tear ourselves away ...
He did nothing to fascinate us ...
he simply measured, first, the circumference of our fingers, then of the rings,
as an ordinary craftsman would. There was no artistry in it even.
He did not bring us closer to anything. All the beauty remained
in our own feeling. He did not widen or narrow anything ...
I was absorbed by my love -- and by nothing else, it seems.

In essence, the hyperfocus on their own powerful emotions / desire for each other overshadowed the sacramental and transcendent dimensions of the vows they were entering into. The jeweler, a priest-like figure who stood before them -- almost like a witness at a marriage -- was in the periphery of their experience, a mere tired formality in the background of what they perceived as most important.

I wonder how often this sort of thing happens to men and women approaching the altar and the sacrament of marriage. How often does God's role in the marriage covenant become only window dressing for a couple preparing for marriage? I don't have the answer, but only want to pose the question.

We live in a hypersentimental culture. But sentimentality doesn't carry us through trials and difficulties. The grace of God -- the initiating and sustaining power of human love, enabling two distinct persons to become one flesh in the mundane but very demanding sacrifices of each being for the other -- is an essential part of what Christians acknowledge and ask for when they come together in the covenant of marriage.

I know some will say I'm a spoil-sport for raising this question, but is an entrance procession like the one above really an appropriate way for a couple to present themselves before God and the human community at the threshold of their marriage vows? I don't know the answer, but merely want to raise the question.

Labels: church, John Paul II, liturgy, marriage and family, moral life, multimedia, poetry, prayer, sacraments

From CatholicVote.org

Labels: communication, human life, moral life, multimedia

A few weeks ago, I happened upon an article on Matthew Lickona's blog about a comic book project he's undertaken: Alphonse. Here's how he describes the project:

Alphonse is the story of eight lives that intersect because of an attempted abortion. Why "attempted?" Because while there are no angels or demons on either side, there is definitely a monster in the middle: Alphonse. Rendered "grotesquely abnormal" by his unwitting mother's use of controlled substances, he is both sentient and freakishly coordinated. He is also deeply wounded, twisted by fear and rage after the attempt on his life, and bent on revenge.
But violence begets violence. Alphonse is pursued even as he is pursuing, and haunted by the claim that there may be another way...

I ordered a copy of the first issue, and read it as soon as it arrived last week. Now, I'm not much of a comic book guy -- didn't grow up with them around, except the occasional Archie Comic. But I think Alphonse is very well-conceived and well-done. It has the potential to reach an audience that is largely ignored in the abortion discussion... It could appeal to a demographic that ordinarily wouldn't care, or might be paying for their girlfriends' abortion(s). It's not didactic, or saccharine, or otherwise radioactive to the young male audience. It will appeal to their thirst for justice, and to their preference for violence as mediator of meaning, but, in a parable-like way, may reveal some readers as perpetrators of injustice. The plot is dark, fast-paced, violent, and unconventional. Imagine the movie Juno, but hijacked by writer-directors Christopher Nolan ("The Dark Knight") and Tim Burton ("Corpse Bride").

Alphonse is treated not so much as victim as protagonist in the story line. He's taking matters into his own hands, motivated by the way he has been treated. It's an interesting story choice, a kind of twist on the common perception of the unborn as aggressor against one's future happiness, as a sort of disease agent attacking one's dreams.

I'd recommend that you buy the comic book if you have an interest in this effort. Like most worthy artistic projects, it won't continue without patronage / financial support:

This is, for me, a labor of love – I just want to tell the story of Alphonse. But my artist and letterer need to eat. I think Chris and Wes are very good, and their work is well worth what I pay for it. But it was only because of the generosity of friends that I was able to afford the production of Issue One. So, if you’re curious to see what happens next, here are some ways you can help.

1. Buy Issue One of Alphonse, and tell others about it. I have a feeling that support for a story like this is going to spread by word of mouth or probably not at all. If you like what you read, if you think there’s something worthwhile there, tell someone. All profits from Issue One will go to finance the rest of the series.
2. Ever hear of Kickstarter.com? It’s a micro-financing site that allows you to make donations toward the creation of a project, donations that will be transferred only if a given project is 100% funded. So if you pledge $10, that $10 goes into my account only if enough money is pledged to complete production of Issue Two. If I don’t get enough pledges, no money is transferred, and everyone walks away clean. My Kickstarter project page can be found here.

Labels: communication, moral life, multimedia

The new encyclical letter from Pope Benedict XVI On Integral Human Development in Charity and Truth was released this past Tuesday.

I've uploaded a print-friendly PDF version of the letter. Like all of the documents on my site, it is designed in a two-column format, with footnotes rather than endnotes. You can download it here.

I haven't had a chance to read the whole thing yet, so I'm not going to post about it just yet. There are plenty of people doing that right now; for reactions and opinions, see the Opinionated Catholic linkfest.

There will be plenty of time to examine this encyclical later; I don't feel any need to correspond to a frenzied news cycle.

Instead, I'm gearing up for a slow, methodical treatment of John Paul II's document on priestly formation. I hope to have the first post prepared by the weekend.

Labels: caritas in veritate, church, John Paul II, pastores dabo vobis, pope benedict xvi, priesthood, Year for Priests

On this Fourth of July, a bracing passage from Archbishop Charles Chaput's book Render Unto Caesar: Serving the Nation by Living Our Catholic Beliefs in Political Life.

About 90 percent of Americans believe in God. About 80 percent describe themselves as Christians. Nearly three-quarters pray at least once a week. Nearly half attend religious services at least once a month. It's a matter of record that Americans are a religious people (Baylor Religion Survey data). It's also true that the Christian faith is the dominant religious influence on the American soul. Many millions of Americans not only claim to be Christian but also actively practice their faith. But what this means for their public witness is less clear and also less reassuring.

Nearly 61 percent of Americans believe a presidential candidate should be a religious person. Clear majorities of both Republican and Democratic voters feel that religion is vital in their own lives. More than half of Americans polled describe themselves as very religious (source). Compared to the figures for Europe, these numbers are astounding. But Americans also have a deeply anti-institutional streak deriving from their Protestant roots, including a distrust of religious institutions. It's also true, according to the researcher George Barna, that American theological views have veered away in recent years from classical scriptural beliefs. Some 66 percent of Americans believe in an omnipotent, all-knowing God who rules creation. But this is the lowest recorded number in more than two decades of studies.

As Barna notes, "Americans are willing to expend some energy in religious activities such as attending church and reading the Bible, and they are willing to throw some money in the offering basket. Because of such activities, they convince themselves that they are a people of genuine faith. But when it comes to truly establishing their priorities and making a tangible commitment to knowing and loving God, and to allowing Him to change their character and lifestyle, most people stop short. We want to be 'spiritual' and we want to have God's favor, but we're not sure we want Him taking control of our lives and messing with the image and outcomes we've worked so hard to produce."

It's hard to see this as anything but a case of split personality. In practice, we've buried ourselves in material pursuits, distractions, and what Neil Postman once described as technological narcotics. Early Christians would have called it something even worse: acedia; a stagnancy or sloth of the soul that shows itself in an unwillingness to "judge" in the name of false compassion; a disregard for moral conviction that hides behind flexibility and openness.

If our nation has changed from the land of opportunity to the land of private appetites over the last few decades, one of the reasons is this: We haven't lived what we say we believe. Homelessness, poverty, abortion, the exploitation of undocumented immigrants, the neglect of the elderly -- these are brazenly real problems in contemporary America. They won't go away by blaming the Religious Right, smearing Christian believers as extremists, or kicking religion out of the public discussion. That's the language of a power grab by people alienated from our country's religious roots.

Our problems can only be solved by people of character who actively and without apology take their beliefs into public debates. That includes Catholics. We need to be stronger in our public witness, not weaker. Whether America is really 80 percent or 50 percent or 10 percent Christian doesn't matter. If we really believe that Jesus Christ is who he says he is, and that the Catholic Church is who she says she is, then we need to live like it. IF we really believe that the Gospel is true, we need to embody it in our private lives and our public choices.

In the end, we can choose to be the small, hollow "men without chests" that C.S. Lewis described in The Abolition of Man: people who have plenty of comforts but no greatness of soul; a contented and conditioned herd without courage, purpose, nobility, or conviction. We can ignore the historian Christopher Dawson when he warned, "This is the greatest misery of modern civilization -- that it has conquered the world by losing its own soul, and when the soul is lost, it must lose the world as well."

Or we can choose to be the people God created us to be.

Labels: church, politics, relativism, USA

I attended the ordination of Bishop Lee Piché yesterday at the Cathedral of Saint Paul, and captured some photos and audio on my iPhone.


I'm posting the images and audio recordings here, with apologies in advance for the quality of some of the audio. I was standing at the back of the right transept, which was near an open door, so there are a few patches of noise in the recordings when wind brushed the very sensitive microphone on my phone.

Entrance Procession: Behold, a New Creation - James Biery (2:32)

Liturgy of the Word: Psalm 34 - Howard Hughes, SM (excerpts; 1:20)


Rite of Ordination: Hymn - Veni, Creator Spiritus - Mode VIII Chant (excerpt; 0:31)

Accende lumen sensibus, infundeamorem coribus, informa nostri corporis virtute firman perpeti.

Enkindle your light within our minds, pour love into our hearts; strengthen the weakness of our body by your never failing power.

Rite of Ordination: Apostolic Letter and Consent of the People (3:18)

The mandate from the Apostolic See is read. This authenticates the Holy Father's choice of this priest for ordination to the Episcopate. The letter is formally presented to the Chancellor of the Archdiocese.

Rite of Ordination: Homily (12:07)

Archbishop Nienstedt addresses Bishop-elect Piché and all present on the office of Bishop.

Rite of Ordination: Litany of Supplication (excerpts; 3:32)

The Archbishop invites all present to beg God to grant an abundance of His grace to His chosen servant.

Concluding Rites: Address by the Newly Ordained (4:25)

Bishop Piché speaks to the people present.

The rest of my photos from the ordination are posted on Flickr.

Coverage in The Catholic Spirit may be found here.

Labels: bishop, church, communion, events, Holy Spirit, multimedia, pope benedict xvi, prayer, priesthood, sacraments

Today, Pope Benedict XVI signed his third encyclical letter, Caritas in Veritate ("Charity in Truth").

According to a Catholic News Agency article, it may be a week or more before the publication becomes available:

The upcoming social encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI "Caritas in veritate" - Charity in truth - will bear the date of the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, June 29, but will likely become public on July 6 or 7, the Italian daily Corriere della Sera said on Saturday.

An article by Gian Guido Vecchi quotes what he claims are several original paragraphs of the Pope’s third encyclical.

The article goes on to provide some passages that will supposedly be included. Among the citations, this:

According to Vecchi, the encyclical will hardly be “good news to the liberals and bad news to the conservatives,” as claimed by some analysts who have not seen the text of the document.

“The Pope quotes Paul VI’s Populorum progressio, which in 1967 denounced the gap between rich and poor countries, but the encyclical also takes from Humanae vitae in criticizing abortion and contraception,” Vecchi writes.

The encyclical, in fact, is likely to say that “openness to life is at the core of every true development,” and regarding the ambiguous policies aimed at “reducing the need for abortion” by means of other social policies, the Pope warns that “if personal and social sensibility toward the welcoming of a new life is lost, even other forms of welcoming (life) useful to social life become fruitless.”

We'll have to wait and see.

UPDATE (7/7/2009): Caritas in Veritate is now available online.

Labels: caritas in veritate, church, moral life, pope benedict xvi

I think of how it began.

Paul Furey, continue to remember us in your prayers. You are certainly in our own.

Labels: communion, paschal mystery, pauline year, prayer, saints, suffering

Today is the feast day of St. Josemaría Escrivá, founder of Opus Dei. He died on this day in 1975.

In this Year for Priests, it seems appropriate to highlight his solicitude for priests:

His love for the priesthood and for priests was transparent. In 1941, he had to leave town for one of these retreats in Lérida. Although his mother was ill, he decided to go anyway because the doctor did not think it was serious.

“Could you offer your sufferings for the work I’m going to do?” he asked her.

As he left the room he heard her murmur: “This son of mine…”

Arriving at the seminary of Lérida, he had knelt before the tabernacle, saying: “Lord, look after my mother, for I am taking care of your priests.”

Two days later, the thought of his mother still very much in his heart, he proceeded to preach on the role of the priest’s mother. It occurred to him to tell his listeners that her role was so important that she should not die till the day after the death of her son the priest.

After the meditation he remained recollected in prayer in front of the Blessed Sacrament. Then the apostolic administrator of the diocese, who was making the retreat, came up to him somewhat disconcerted and said in a low voice: “Álvaro del Portillo would like you to phone him in Madrid.”

His mother, Dolores, had died.

Years later, Saint Josemaría affirmed, “I have always thought that our Lord wanted that sacrifice from me, as an external proof of my love for diocesan priests, and that my mother especially continues to intercede for that work.”

(source)

Here are a couple of additional resources on St. Josemaría Escrivá:

• his writings
• novena to Saint Josemaría for work

Labels: prayer, priesthood, saints

I saw an advance screening of The Stoning of Soraya M in Minneapolis several weeks ago. I have a friend at Mpower Pictures, the production company who is distributing.

I think it's a tough sell.

Great performance by Shohreh Aghdashloo, although there are some unanswered questions about how her character came to be the maverick she is.

The stoning is as graphic as the scourging scene in the Passion (Steve McEveety producing on both), but to less purpose here, I think. Watching Jesus suffer is meaningful for a believer. Watching Soraya get bloodied to a pulp is less meaningful as spectacle. Don't see the point in having the camera linger on it. I would definitely not classify this as a family film.

No epiphanies really -- it has a moral (treating women badly is bad) but no theme ... nothing to be argued.

And I don't know what they want the audience to come away with -- except some general sense that the culture depicted needs to be deconstructed / exposed... but it raises all kinds of questions: Are ALL Muslims like this? Are all the abusive men one-dimensional and unsympathetic like the husband in this film? It's a morality play of sorts, I suppose.

For a vigorous discussion of story as epiphany, heroes in cinema storytelling, how dark is too dark, etc., visit the podcast site for last October's Act One Story Symposium.

Panel discussions include Hollywood writers, producers, and the winsome Dr. Peter Kreeft.

Labels: hollywood, movies